5 Teams that kept Rohit Sharma on their wishlist ahead of IPL 2011 auction

The auction for the 2020 edition of the world’s biggest T20 league- IPL- is a just a few weeks away. All the teams would have begun their thinking process for the same as a lot of big names will go under the hammer this year. The franchises announced their lists of retained and released players on 15th November and even the released players will feature in this auction.

While there are no rules for wishlists in the upcoming auction, the BCCI had requested the teams to send their wishlists to them so they can keep those players in the first round of the auction. A similar wishlist of IPL Auction 2011 has surfaced online and the most interesting name is of the current Indian vice-captain, Rohit Sharma.

The right-handed batsman was released by Deccan Chargers and since he had become a popular name in T20 cricket, a lot of teams wanted him in their side.

Here’s a look at the 5 teams that kept Rohit Sharma on their wishlist ahead of IPL Auction 2011–

Mumbai Indians

As the fans know, Mumbai Indians had emerged as the winners of the bidding war for Rohit Sharma in 2011. The Mumbai-based franchise had signed the local boy for a massive amount of $2 Million. This proved to be the best signing in the tournament’s history as Rohit has guided Mumbai Indians to 4 IPL titles.

He took over the captaincy from Ricky Ponting in 2013 and led the team to the title in his first season as captain. His next triumphs came in 2015, 2017 and most recently in 2019 as Sharma holds the record for being the most successful captain in IPL history.

Delhi Daredevils

Prior to the auction, Delhi Daredevils had submitted their wishlist which featured the names of Yusuf Pathan, Saurabh Tiwary, Shakib Al Hasan, Parthiv Patel and Rohit Sharma. Though the team owners tried their best, they could secure none of the players they wished to buy. They had retained only Virender Sehwag ahead of the 2011 edition of IPL and it would have been a treat for the fans if Delhi had signed Rohit.

The Hitman could have opened the innings with Sehwag and the duo could have decimated the opposition bowlers. Delhi would have even won their first IPL title if they had bought Rohit in the IPL 2011 Auction. However, all Delhi can do now is regret because Mumbai Indians are unlikely to release him from their squad until he retires.

Chennai Super Kings

As this was a mega-auction, Chennai Super Kings had let go of a majority of their players before the event. They only kept MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Albie Morkel and Murali Vijay in their team. Their two biggest signings were Ravichandran Ashwin ($0.85 Million) and Subramaniam Badrinath ($0.8 Million).

However, both the players were not present on Chennai Super Kings’ wishlist that featured the likes of Yusuf Pathan, Saurabh Tiwary, Angelo Mathews and Rohit Sharma. It is crazy to imagine MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Rohit turn up for one IPL team in 2019 but, this could have been possible had the owners of Chennai Super Kings taken the risk of signing the right-handed top order batsman in the 2011 auction.

Rajasthan Royals

Rajasthan Royals had a realistic chance of signing Rohit Sharma in the auction because they had bought only six players at the event. Their biggest signing was Rahul Dravid while the franchise had retained the Australian duo of Shane Watson and Shane Warne ahead of the auction.

The Jaipur-based franchise has not lifted the IPL trophy since 2008 hence, it would have been a great move had they gone after Rohit in the auction. Just like Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan could not buy a single player from their wishlist which contained the names of Yusuf Pathan, Jacques Kallis and Saurabh Tiwary apart from Rohit.

It would have been interesting to see how Rohit would have performed under the guidance of Warne and Dravid. Besides, had Rajasthan persisted with him, we could have seen the formation of a deadly opening pair comprising Rohit and Jos Buttler in 2019.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Royal Challengers Bangalore could have won multiple IPL tournaments till now had they fulfilled their wish of having Rohit Sharma in their team. They had the quartet of TM Dilshan, Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers in their squad. RCB had the funds to go after Rohit but they included Saurabh Tiwary in the team for $1.6 Million. Thus, the team management had made a massive blunder in the 2011 auction by preferring Tiwary over Sharma.

The duo of Virat and Rohit would have been ruling the tournament by now had RCB played bold in 2011. Their wishlist even had the names of Gautam Gambhir, Dale Steyn and Yusuf Pathan apart from Saurabh and Rohit. Besides, RCB had even spent $0.7 Million in that auction to sign Cheteshwar Pujara.